Tag Archives: survivorship. breast cancer

I just read this blog today from another breast cancer warrior. I could have written parts of this post, although my writing is not as eloquent as hers. I recently told one of my “Breasties” on Twitter that I used to think I’d just go through the surgery & treatment my oncology team wants me to, then I’ll be “past this” and move on. To a degree that is still true, but I’m not so naïve to think that after 2014 I’ll simply be “done” with cancer. I will always be some form of a cancer patient. I’m currently going through treatment. Once I’m done with treatment I’ll still have to have regular monitoring for years & years to come. I do hope to be cancer free for a long time, like my grandmother and my aunt. But I’ve met too many Stage IV patients who were in my exact same shoes years ago. They also “caught it early”, but are now fighting to stay alive as long as they can, and with a good quality of life. It’s not fair, and it’s silly for me to think that “it’ll never be me.” I’m not all doom and gloom about it, but I also used think that with the high risk in my family it’d probably still never happen to me. However, I was unlucky and it happened to me. It would be terribly insulting to my Breasties to say , “I’m done guys! No more cancer!”

Positive thinking is nice & is so necessary. I AM a positive person most of the time, but plenty of people who are positive, hopeful & do all the right things still die from cancer. Don’t be ignorant when talking to a cancer patient. Once their treatment is over, the initial worry might be over.. FOR YOU. For cancer patients, recurrence is a very real threat that may not always be right in our face but is always lurking in the back of our minds. Just be kind and mindful of the things you say. That’s all 🙂
XOXO